“Newtown Theatre has seized business.
The local grocery store, one block up, knows that there will be a new name.
The Southend Café knows that there is a new vibe.
The Botany View Hotel bar staff knows that there is a buzz, created by a man who looks like a teacher, but is involved with the empty space across the road.
The neighbours around know that there is something in the air and are sitting at their windows, waiting for the lights to go on. The lights of:
KING STREET THEATRE
Nurturing all Arts to LIVE
Rather than just SURVIVE Read more

In the glimmering first moments, when the light grows up and around the actors, a feeling is established. It feels like something secret, or hidden. An animal patiently waiting to pounce. The feeling of the sky just before the first clap of thunder breaks silence. Is a quiet hum that nags and repeats. It’s the feel of the past – a bruise you just can’t shake. Read more

“Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.”

Dylan Thomas said it then. Don Reid is showing us now. Do not go gentle.

Go with a steely confidence. Go with defiance. Defy the contemporary world’s obsession with youth, and body beautiful and tight-faced “perfection!” Read more

One of most pleasurable things you can witness is someone doing something well. And for me that can be anything from watching my favourite barista at Pausa cafe wiggle the milk into a fern frond, those hard rock- candy guys in the rocks snip and twist hot sugar, or a skilled performer do what they do – entertain. Read more

“Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains. One man thinks himself the master of others, but remains more of a slave than they are.” – Jean-Jacques Rousseau

The Social Contract by Rousseau is probably one of my favourite philosophical works. Read more

Anthony Skuse’s program notes warn us of the loss of innocence. What, when, how do we realise our power and influence in shaping the world? What happens when the falcon cannot hear the falconer? What anchors us when all our leaders are lost? What are we in essense, how long does it take for us to lose all that we know and have developed?

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity. Read more

I love war stories. I love ANZAC Day. Not for the glorification of war, not because of patriotic altruism. I think war is one of the great examples of tragedy. There are always more losses than gains in war – and it’s psychological effect on people lasts long after the battles. Read more

We can’t help but be affected by our environment. Read more

Yes it’s unusual. Unusual for me to take so long to write a response to a new work. But I felt I needed to take my time on this one. Mainly because I think this is yet another highly controversial production from team Belvoir.

And it is controversial not for the obvious reason – Benedict Andrews at the helm usually triggers a hot-collared response from the conservative punters Read more

The streets of Sydney are a strange place, at times. Read more